A SplashClan Challenge: One Word
by Moonless Dusk
Summary: Firepetal was a pretty she-cat, the whole clan knew it. Dawn knew it all too well.


**First challenge for SplashClan, woo!**

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Dawn hated Firepetal, always had, and always will. Most warriors are valued for virtues such as strength, courage, or wisdom, she was valued for her beauty, and nothing more, not that she had anything else going for her. The young warrior had a soft flame colored pelt, wide green eyes, and a tail with dark petal shaped patches. To top it off, her voice was soft and smooth, allowing her to talk her way out of any trouble with a purr and flick of the tail. It aggravated Dawn every day, and she dread to wake up every morning in the warriors den just to see and hear Firepetal's excuses.

No prey caught day? Don't worry, they're always skittish around this time. Another cat took the prey you caught? Oh, I'll deal with them. A tom has been giving you problems? Let me talk to him.

As far as preforming her actual duties went, her performance was deplorable. She wouldn't wake up until afternoon, and when she did, she would leave to go to the meadow, claiming she was hunting. In actuality, she was sitting under a tree in green-leaf, and sunning herself on a rock in leaf-fall. By the time she would come back, it would already be dawn, and she would go straight to her nest, claiming she was tired from chasing rabbits all evening.

While Firepetal had it easy, Dawn had the short end of the stick. Dawn had a short, pale gold and ginger pelt. Her muzzle was white around the whiskers, often giving her the appearance of a much older cat. Her eyes were also a dull, pale blue-gray, which didn't help. If it wasn't for her performance, the kits and apprentices would mistake her for an elder. Dawn was in fact considerably young, approximately twenty-six moons old, four moons older than Firepetal. Unlike Firepetal's young, lean appearance, Dawn was exceptionally muscular for a she-cat.

Also unlike Firepetal, she did her work. Mornings were spent training her apprentice, afternoons were boarder patrols, and evenings were hunting. As an apprentice, she was fierce, throwing herself in to battle against cats nearly twice her size. Of course this didn't yield her desired result, but a flame burned inside her, earning the name Dawnheart, though the medicine cat joked that she really shoud have been Dawnscar. To her dismay, it didn't hold a torch to Firepetal's supposed kindness, and reason.

Though it may have seemed like a simple case of jealousy, there was more to it than the clan realized. Dawn knew that underneath that innocent, beguiling face was a wicked wretch. She knew she was attractive, and used it to her advantage. With in the past twelve moons, she had three mates.

First, it was wise Blackstorm, a respected senior warrior and deputy of the clan. Firepetal figured that she would quickly become a mentor, and easily move up in rank if Blackstorm became leader. Although, she left him as soon as he mentioned retirement. He passed away in his sleep the next night and was replaced by a she-cat named Copperrose. The old tom was heartbroken by Firepetal, in fact some said he literally died of a broken heart.

Next was brave Fangstrike, Copperrose's littermate. Their relationship was short lived. While Fangstrike had the courage of all of LionClan, his fatal flaw was his rashness. In a boarder skirmish, he attacked the rival clan's leader, unaware he was on her last life. All of the warriors struck Fangstrike down in a flurry of bites and slashes until one fatally pierced his throat.

At this point, Dawnheart thought Firepetal was only irritating with finding another mate so quickly, and on top of her vanity. What really pushed it for her was her third mate.

Kind hearted Berrytail was Flintstar's son, and Dawnheart's littermate. Unlike the last two, he was young and patient, but also extremely oblivious. Last leaf-bare, she gave birth to a litter of three, two tom's by the names of Flamekit, and Emberkit, and a she-kit named Duskkit that looked almost exactly like her aunt. It took quite a while for Firepetal to agree on that.

One day, Firepetal left the nursery to go to her meadow. The young queen failed to realized that there was no other cat in the nursery at the time. By the time she came back, Flamekit and Emberkit were already still and lifeless. Only Duskkit remained, clinging on to life by a whisker, and whimpering for her mother. Firepetal managed to dispose of the tom kits, but by the time she returned, she caught the attention of the clan. Putting on the innocent act, she wailed that her kits were stolen. Unfortunate for Dawnheart, she entered the camp at that moment. Firepetal then went on about say that Dawnheart killed them and left Duskkit. She claimed the golden and ginger she-cat was jealous that the hasn't born kits as handsome as them. That night, it was nearly unanimously agreed that agreed that she would be exiled.

That crossed the line for the newly named Dawn, now stripped of her clan name. The she-cat never truly left the territory, but merely stayed camouflaged in the foliage. What burned her even more was when she found out that Firepetal disowned Duskkit after she could eat solid food. She moved back in to the warriors den with on one noticing the lonely kit. Berrytail's blind love made him fail to see his mate's cruelty, even when Duskkit was apprenticed. She even heard rumors that Flintstar was planning on giving Firepetal an apprentice soon.

One crisp new-leaf afternoon, Firepetal was back to her regular routine of lounging in the meadow. The ginger she-cat groomed herself while starring at her reflection in a clear pool under an apple tree, unaware of the pair of eyes watching her from above.

Dawn struck swiftly, not giving a moment for Firepetal to react. By the time she crawled her way back to camp, it was too late to save her precious looks. She was unable to hear her clanmates' frantic questions through her permanently damaged and shredded ears. She whipped her head around, trying to find the medicine cat with her one good eye. Only a dark red-black splash filled her vision for the other one. In the crowd, she spotted Berrytail with a horrified, and disgusted expression. Duskpaw smirked in satisfaction, the same way Dawn did, which made Firepetal stumble back in shock.

From the top of one of the many trees that protected the camp, Dawn watched with a smirk.

Duskpaw twitched an her and looked above her, locking eyes with Dawn.

The two cats smiled at each other, both knowing that Firepetal's vanity has come to an end.


End file.
